Self-learning in technology for more than 5 years

I am a developer, but so many times I do not feel like one. And I know I’m not alone. In fact, very few know what they are doing. And those who know most probably work on some legacy system for the last 10+ years.

I’ve spent countless hours watching video tutorials, reading books and articles, attended meetups (back when that was a thing), and installed so many drivers, package managers, and IDEs that my laptop’s battery overheated and bent the screen. And I’ve been successful at my job. Yet I still lack confidence in my abilities. I am worried that I do not know enough compared to someone with a degree in Computer Science, or I do not know some latest-and-greatest tool.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

The hardest part of self-learning is the lack of infrastructure and licenses. When you work in a real project, you can count on tens or even hundreds of people who take care of that. In most cases, one person is not responsible for doing 100% of the work. It is very hard as a beginner to spin up a server for the front end, then a server for a back end and a database, and figure out the API endpoints. Yes, there are plenty of free resources available, but most of the instructions will explain one little part, and then you need to figure out the rest yourself. In most cases you’ll need to rely on some partial solution, that was designed a year ago, and now dependencies have changed, some open-source tools are no longer supported, and you are left with extraneous error codes.

Do not give up! Try another tutorial, contact someone on LinkedIn or in some popular Slack channel and ask for help. You’ll be surprised by how many people are willing to help. When you feel stuck, change the subject. If you were learning HTML, switch to a Database design. Everything is connected, and a subject to change.

If you want to work in IT, you have to be committed to continuous learning. Do not be blindly convinced that after you finish some 3-month course, without any previous work experience, that you will magically get the best 6-figure job and never have to study again.

3 years ago I was a cashier in a grocery store. Now I am a Senior Consultant in Robotic Process Automation. But my actual path did not take 3 years, it took a lot longer. Maybe some would have an easier way than I had. I had great mentors and I’m grateful for all the opportunities and experience that I’ve got. It’s not easy, but it is possible!

Here are some ideas to start:

1. Start with the real business scenario, preferably connected to what you are doing in your day-to-day activities. If you work in a restaurant — start with ideas about menus and orders. If you are still studying at school, and never had a job, think about the library, or how you are preparing for a new school year.
2. Draw some screens with pen and paper. Ask your friends about additional features. Learn about informational interviews and collect the requirements. Register for Jira account, or some other tool for requirement gathering.
3. Keep talking to people and improving your prototype. Learn about Agile. Make your prototype digital (just the images).
4. Learn about front-end, and try to bring at least some of your design to life. You can use some drag-and-drop platforms and start learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
5. You’ll need Git to keep track of your code changes.
6. Learn about API and create mock requests with hard-coded values using some tools with free trials.
7. Connect your mock API to your front-end.
8. If you are doing your HTML design now it’s time to think where you can host it. Plenty of free options available since you have a static site.
9. Learn about Database design concepts SQL and no-SQL (irrelevant of technology implementation)
10. Use a tool like Airtable to create your tables and practice working with relationships between tables.
11. Use tools like Zapier and IFTTT to connect your day-to-day apps together. If you have some budget for this, get some smart appliances to your home and set them up, teach your mom, or grandmom how to use them. You’ll need those skills.
12. If you have not given up yet — you are ready for more serious work. On your laptop, you’ll need to host a server for the front end, for a database, and for a back end and try to connect all of the pieces together. Localhost is your best friend :-) From there you are ready for CI/CD concepts.

In all the steps you are your own boss. You decide how far you want to go and what parts of the process you enjoy the most. Maybe you realized that you love collecting requirements — fine, you will still benefit from knowledge about technology and what is possible to implement, or what is far from reality.

I hope that this post will not overwhelm you, but inspire you to continue your unique journey.